MI weekly selection #288

Mexico’s Sistema Huautla, one of the world’s deepest cave systems, is larger than previously thought. A group of cavers and researchers found new connections while trapped by flooding inside Sistema Huautla.

Three hybrid canine flu strains have been found in dogs in Southern China, raising concerns that the animals could be a potential source for an influenza outbreak. “The more diversity of viruses there is in an animal reservoir, the higher the chances that it will lead to a version of the virus that is able to jump,” said study co-author Adolfo Garcia-Sastre.

Although adults who had had type 1 diabetes for 50 years had a slightly worse performance in a series of memory tests than those without diabetes, they did not show any clinical signs of mild cognitive decline overall. Researchers used a cohort of 143 patients with and without diabetes and found keeping good control of blood glucose levels, avoiding unhealthy lifestyle habits, getting regular exercise and eating health foods can help prevent cognitive decline among those with diabetes.

The moon is slowly moving away from Earth, resulting in longer days. Researchers used astrochronology, a new statistical way to measure timescales, to figure out that Earth was much closer to the moon 1.4 billion years ago and days were about 18 hours long then.